Once a Year, the Dreaded Holidays
by Feiring
Summary: Each holidays, Odd must return to his home. There, he is bored out of his mind, annoyed by his five sisters and simply misses his friends. But maybe this summer won't be so bad after all...


**::I wanted to make a short oneshot about something (or in that case, someone), that would make Odd's holidays a tad better. A reason for him to come back. Reviews are appreciated u:: **

**::Odd and Code Lyoko don't belong to me in any way.::**

Odd Della Robia sighed and continued looking at the ceiling, which he had a perfect view of from the position he was in; laying on his bed. Each year it was the same during the summer holidays. He'd come back home, back in Italy and try to survive three long months without his friends in the same house as his five hellish older sisters respectively named Adele, Pauline, Elizabeth, Maurine and Louise. He still remembered last years March holidays when they locked him up in the bathroom all night because they thought it was funny...

Scowling at the thought, he rolled over and closed his eyes, bored out of his mind. Through the door, one of his sisters -Pauline- yelled at him that they were all going to go out and asked him if he wanted to come. He didn't answer and, after a couple of seconds, heard the shuffling of her feet tell him that she left.

The clock on his desk, which hosted a big pile of drawings, different kind of paint, brushes, crayons and multiple other art supplies, told him it was four in the afternoon. In about three hours, dinner would be ready. Dang, he was hungry.

Running down the stairs, past the very colourfully decorated walls and ignoring the usual mess in the house, with random brushes and art material left everywhere; he walked into the kitchen and supplied himself with an apple. Biting into the delicious crunchy fruit, he took a stained cloth that had been lying on the ground and put it over the counter. Paint was all over it. In the sink, last night's tableware was still unwashed, per usual. Everywhere you looked, there was something related about arts and music laying somewhere. Compositions, crayons, palettes... It was to be expected, with the Della Robia's, family full of artists.

Throwing away his apple's core, he took another one from the fruit bowl and put a disk in the stereo. Loud, upbeat music blasted from it and soon he found himself dancing to it, enjoying the song and playing air guitar.

The doorbell rang, but over the music he didn't hear it. It took multiple times before he actually realised it was ringing and ran to the door, leaving his unfinished second apple of the day on the counter.

He opened the door and met a very angry looking girl, arms crossed over her chest.

-"Finally someone answered! I've been ringing the bell for a long time already, you know..." she complained with a frown, but a smile quickly replaced it.

I thought of answering, but the words seemed stuck in his throat for a moment, a moment where I had to get over of the beauty that was at the porch of his house. Her black, wavy and glistening hair went all the way to her waist. She had green eyes that sparkled and the prettiest tan of all. She wore a light, white summer dress and flip flops. She was a bit taller than me, by about 8 inches, but almost everyone was.

-"I'm Lucrezia, by the way! Who're you? I've never seen you around..."

-"I'm Odd... I usually live in a residence back at my school -Kadic- in France, during the year, so that must be why we never met. I come back for the holidays though," I informed her.

Ah, my ability to speak was coming back.

-"Ah! I've heard of you from Louise, though she didn't speak well of you... Speaking of Louise, is she here?"

So she came for Louise... "Um, no, I'm alone at the moment. Do you want to come in?"

-"Oh, if it isn't a bother, yes please!"

I stepped out of the way and she came in, looking around and smiling at the usual mess that reigned in our house. Her flip flops made a clacking noise while she walked, almost like "flip, flop" and I understood better why they were called like that. As if she was used to come here, she made her way to the kitchen and fell on a chair at the table. I sat beside her and we talked. I learned she was one year older than me and a friend of Louise (who's two years older than me). That she didn't call beforehand to see if Louise was there because her cells batteries weren't recharged -she thought she had charged it the night before, but forgot-.

She talked a lot and her voice was soft, a real pleasure to listen to.

Sometimes she sipped her glass of lemonade and played with the little umbrella, listening to what I was saying. For the first time since I came back for the holidays, I felt as if I had a friend in this place, even if I just met her today.

After a while, I noticed she was staring at me from her side of the table and flashed a smile which she returned. "Why are you staring?"

-"I was just looking at your hair. It's cool. You really like purple, don't you?"

-"Yeah; it's my favourite color!"

-"That's nice," she giggled. "Mine is orange," she said, while looking out at the window. The sun set's ray was pouring onto us by the open window, and a gentle breeze that helped everyone feel refreshed during that hot summer day blew its way in. "...Like the sunset."

Eh... She's a romantic.

-"That's kind of romantic."

She looked taken aback by what I said, but soon began laughing. "I guess it is."

With a clang she put her glass on the table and got up. I did too and accompanied her by the door. "I have to go now, or I'll miss the bus."

-"Ah...Let's hang out together another time."

-"Let's."

She began walking away our long alleyway, before turning and shouting "Tell Louise I passed by and that I think her brother isn't dorky, but quite adorable, on the contrary!" and ran away, as the bus that stopped close to our house came and would have left if she didn't make sign for it to wait.

When I closed the door, I knew I was definitely a bit red in the face. It was the first time a girl said I was genuinely cute, that I didn't have to do anything to impress her. The level of my heartbeat had increased. Passing my hand in my hair, I looked in the mirror that was in the hallway and smiled while looking at my reflection; I was definitely in love.

I cracked a smile; maybe this summer wouldn't be as boring as I thought!


End file.
